1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interface menus for electronic devices and, more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for obtaining and displaying contact information.
2. Background and Relevant Art
The term “contact,” as described herein, generally refers to any person, group, organization, business, household, or other type of identifiable entity. The term “contact information,” as defined herein, generally refers to any information that corresponds to a contact and that may be considered relevant for contacting, accessing, corresponding or communicating with the contact.
In the context of the present application, contact information is used by applications to perform a desired function, such as, for example, sending an email, initiating a telephone call, accessing a website, initiating a gaming session, performing a financial transaction, scheduling a meeting, and so forth. Non-limiting examples of contact information include names, aliases, telephone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and web addresses. Contact information can also refer to other types of information such as the status of a contact. For example, information indicating a contact is currently online, or on a telephone line may also be broadly considered as contact information.
Many existing computer applications are configured to store and display application specific contact information. For example, email applications typically include directories for storing and displaying the email addresses of contacts that can be emailed. Money management applications typically include directories for storing contact information about related financial contacts, such as, for example, banks, accounting service organizations, financial planning organizations, and so forth. Other examples of applications that utilize contact information include time management applications, instant messaging applications, network gaming applications, business directory applications, telephony applications, and so forth.
Certain hardware devices that are not considered traditional computers are also configured to store and use contact information. For example, many telephones, facsimile devices, and photocopying devices store contact information that may be used to perform a desired function such as initiating a telephone call, a facsimile transmission, or a telecopy transmission.
One problem encountered with obtaining contact information, however, is that the large variety of specialized and disparate contact management systems and contact directories can make it difficult for a user to quickly access all of the available contact information for the various applications and at the same time. This can be a problem, for example, when a user desires to identify all available means for making contact with a given entity because it may require the user to separately access various directories from many different contact management systems in order to obtain the desired contact information. For example, it may be necessary to access a telephone directory to obtain the home or cell telephone number for the contact, an email directory to obtain a primary email address for the contact, a business directory to obtain the business telephone number, and business email address of the entity, and so forth.
This disparity between contact management systems and directories can also be a problem for obtaining different types of contact information about different contacts. For example, it may be desirable to view the email address of a first contact, the business telephone number of a second contact, and the cell telephone number of a third contact. If the desired contact data for the different entities is located in different application directories, then each application will have to be accessed to obtain the desired information. This can particularly be a problem when a user has forgotten in which of the application directories the desired contact information is stored.
To overcome some of these problems, some contact management systems are configured to store more contact information then is required for the corresponding application. For example, an email directory may be configured to store the addresses, phone numbers and other information about the various contacts stored therein. However, it is somewhat undesirable to duplicatively enter every piece of contact information about every contact into every utilized contact management system. This redundant storage would also represent undesirable and unnecessary expenditure of resources.
Yet another problem experienced by some contact management systems is that it is difficult or impossible for a user to access contact information from a directory or backing store that is not associated with the application being used by the user. For example, a user cannot easily access telephony information stored in a telephony directory from an email application.
Another problem with existing applications and user interfaces is that they are limited in allowing contact-centric tasks to be performed between the user and the contacts. For example, an existing game may include the name of an opponent playing the game, but the ability to send the contact an instant message or email is not available through the gaming interface.